A little bragging is called for.

My children often amaze me, both in good ways and bad. Today, I was amazed in a very good way. This morning we were on our own while Aaron went to the temple, then golfing with a buddy. We got to have the car so I told the kids we could go have some fun. Turns out that trolling the aisles of Savers for bargains wasn't Pyper's idea of fun. But after about ten minutes of attitude, she warmed up to the idea, especially when we entered the toy aisle. I told them they could each pick a toy. Pyper almost immediately found this little toy karaoke machine, complete with a cassette tape and two attached microphones. I knew she didn't really know what it was, but she wanted it anyway. Hakan took a little longer to decide, picking something up, saying "I want this!", then two seconds later discarding it after spotting something better. He finally settled on a small metal wagon, even though the handle had come off and it was painted with yellow and purple flowers.

As we were walking away I started to feel guilty, realizing that I was probably spending too much money. There was a section in the toy department where they'd filled plastic baggies with lots of small toys which cost half as much. I'm not sure why I didn't just have them look there in the first place. Anyway, I finally decided that the toys they'd chosen were going to have to go back. I explained that they just cost too much money and that they could choose something smaller instead. I put back a few of the things I'd picked up to show them that I wasn't keeping everything I'd chosen, either. As we circled back towards the toys, Pyper clutched her karaoke machine to her chest, imploring me to let her keep it because she "so loves it". She asked me if it made me sad that I couldn't get all the things I wanted and I said that it's kind of a bummer but it's not a big deal. I felt terrible for making them put the toys away but stood my ground, fully expecting a complete and total meltdown from each of them as I had them place the toys back on the shelf.

Now for the amazing part- No tears. No screaming. No wrenching toys out of their hands then making a beeline for the door. No giant embarrassing scene in the middle of a busy store. After a little coaxing they both complied and quickly chose a small bag of toys instead. I was FLOORED and hardly dared believe what had just happened. This may not sound like a big deal to many of you, but asking a 3 and 5-year-old to put back a toy they were just told they could have conjures in my mind images of total and utter bedlam. And what else would I deserve? Talk about feeling like a cheat. But they were great. Hakan was happy with his bag of little bugs, animals and dinosaurs. And it wasn't the 3 tiny stuffed puppies or the yo-yo that Pyper liked best in her bag, but the rub-on Loony Tunes tattoos that had her most excited.






After Savers we went down the street to Subway for some lunch. During one of my two trips to the bathroom with Hakan while Pyper stayed behind to sit with Finn, she struck up a friendship with two little girls that came and sat in the booth behind ours. When I came back she turned from her conversation with them and asked me who lives in the temple. I was a little confused and wasn't sure I felt right about having that talk in the middle of a restaurant, so I said we'd talk about it on the way home. She turned back to her food and that was all I heard. Later I asked her what had prompted the temple question and she said that she was telling those girls about the temple because they didn't know anything about it. She'd told them that her daddy had gone to the temple this morning and that it's an important place with special things inside. What a sweetheart! I love that she had no inhibitions about telling her new friends all that she knew about the temple.

I'm always apprehensive about going out with all 3 kids by myself, which is why I don't do it very often. But today I was pleasantly surprised by how easy they made it on me and the sweetness they both showed.